Insights on Eastern Hellenistic Historical and Archaeological Material Culture of the Oikoumene: Globalisation and Local Socio-Cultural Identities

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Hellenistic Middle East, especially the age of Ptolemaic Alexandrian and Syrian Seleucid influence. It investigates and clarifies some of the Hellenistic-age historical and archaeological material culture within the Hellenisation and globalisation conceptions. Furthermore, it suggests that by reviewing the context of the local socio-cultural identities in the Hellenistic Oikoumene, mainly based on the lingua franca about local identity and how the local identity was expressed on coinage during Hellenistic times, many related insights issues can be revealed. In addition, it also attempts to discuss and reveal aspects of the cultural sharing achievements in Hellenistic art, architecture, and urban built environment planning. Finally, how did Eastern Hellenistic cities manage to benefit from the process of Hellenistic globalisation and localisation/globalisation while minimising identity risks? The focus is on the transnational socio-cultural and economic area of Ptolemaic Alexandria, the centre of the post-Classical Greek world, and the Syrian Seleucid influence. As an investment, mass migration and the transfer of goods, culture, and ideas increasingly transformed these Middle Eastern cities and shaped their translocal culture conception, local socio-cultural identities, cultural sharing, art and architecture edifice forms, and spatial patterns in the Hellenistic period. One of the main contributions and significance of this study is to continue the dialogue of how non-Greek influence in Hellenistic times impacted an area that has been traditionally seen as unaffected or minimally affected by years under foreign rule. This also sheds new light on some Greco-Macedonian topics not sufficiently debated in the Oikoumene discussion dialogue. These two aspects would furthermore contribute to better understanding and accepting the neglected role of the contribution of non-Greek culture to Greek achievements, as well as how the local non-Greek customs of the indigenous peoples of the Ptolemy and Seleucid kingdoms would affect how they assimilated Greco-Macedonian practices, and how the vision of Alexander the Great and Hellenisation worked in the different territories of these two kingdoms.

Notes on Urban Planning, Landscape and Architecture of Nabataean Petra Paradigm

“…One of Hellenistic art's tendencies, if not one of the characteristics, was industrialisation (Grimal, 1968, p. 195). Here, the roots of globalisation can be found (Haddad, 2021). Malcolm Waters confirms his belief through his brilliant guiding theorem for the globalisation process: "material exchanges localise, political exchanges internationalise, and symbolic changes globalise" (Waters, 1995, p. 9).…”

“…Using "non-tectonic" structural elements as surface decoration, their vast scale, harmony within the natural landscape, architectural style and rhythm, and construction details guaranteed classical antiquity baroque facades superabundance through the perpetual interplay of light and shade they created. The Hellenistic Macedonian trend searching for symbolic artistic subtraction and interaction of the classical prototypes in which the central doorway symbolised the whole structure (Haddad, 2021;Haddad, 2013) (Fig. 12), is a good paradigm to this a-tectonic Hellenistic formation that gives room for the creative imagination and inventiveness of the Nabataean local architects and builders to more certain theatricalityscreened facades.…”

“…On the contrary, it continued and was adopted by the Romans. On the other hand, Hellenic (classical culture) was adopted and adapted by the Macedonians; and became a crucial element in Hellenistic civilisation, and the latter was adopted and adapted by the Romans (Haddad, 2021).…”

“…Petra is a perfect paradigm for understanding how urban and architectural culture affects international relations. In fact, through the spectacles of Hellenism, architecture was also a form of propaganda that linked the oriental regions of the Oikoumene together and resulted in the interaction between Greek and Middle Eastern cultures (Haddad, 2021). The critical factor here is that Hellenistic art and architecture were an organised industry.…”

“…Malcolm Waters confirms his belief through his brilliant guiding theorem for the globalisation process: "material exchanges localise, political exchanges internationalise, and symbolic changes globalise" (Waters, 1995, p. 9). Moreover, the modern idea of globalisation has a strong historical connection to the Hellenization that defined the Hellenistic age (Stoyanoff, 1997, p. 2;Haddad, 2021). Therefore, Hellenism can only be understood as a product of cultural interaction between Greek and Middle Eastern cultures and interaction between the East and West.…”